I have a hypothesis that Safield is gayer than anything we've seen before in Life is Strange. behold as i word-vomit onto a page.
Heavy Spoilers ahead, obviously. Maybe it's because, for some reason, the writers felt like this relationship needed to live more in subtext than max's more explicitly romantic relationships with either amanda or vinh. (i actually really like both of them, i think they're great. but they don't set my heart on fire the way safi does.) safield feels way more intense than max's relationship with amanda, or sean's with finn, or alex's with steph (i say this as a gigantic chenrich fan), or even pricefield. pricefield was a lot more comparatively lighthanded where safield was fraught and intense and heavy. double exposure's subtext with these two was absolutely DEAFENING, while the pro-text of the earlier games was merely shouting from the rooftops (true colors). i mean, max had a part of safi in her heart. SHE STOLE SAFI'S HEART (or safi GAVE max her heart)! and then she half joked about not wanting to take it back, asking if that was weird, and max could say no??? come on??? while they were like this!
and then we got these shots from earlier in chapter 4
definitely not homoerotic at all. the mood lighting, the framing, the lingering shots... jesus everything here is screaming homoerotic tension.
and then after the krampus party when max draws her incredibly platonic friend in a sexy suit like that is just a normal thing to do
this line in the bowling alley in the nightmare storm in chapter 5
and then finally at the end after the storm. when safi and max are going their separate ways for now? after hitting the age-old lesbian "run away with me" trope. the clinginess, the yearning, intimacy shown here by these two incredibly closed-off girls. it speaks volumes. they are absolutely the most important people in each other's lives. and they definitely seem to be very good friends.